Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We had so much fun being together and enjoying our wonderful traditions. I couldn't wait for Christmas this year. I ended up pulling out the decor the day before Thanksgiving and the boys and I went to work. My tree looked lovely, especially the bottom two feet of it. After we finished decorating it I asked Brandon how it looked. He was not satisfied. Somewhere he learned that you must have a YELLOW star on the top of the tree. So we journeyed to the store and he chose the perfect star. When we got home he informed me that I needed to put him on my shoulders and let him put the star on top. So, I got a chair and put him on my shoulders. The tree was perfect. I was a bit hesitant to wrap the gifts and put them under the tree but more worried the boys would find them and I was running out of hiding spots. To my surprise they did a great job leaving them alone. I told Brandon I was worried about Aaron opening them and he said, "maybe I might open them" with a big smile. We had a little talk and it must have worked. Christmas eve we opened jammies and used skype to video my parents. We all opened their presents with them watching. What a wonderful creation. The boys were so excited about their new toys from grandma and papa we could hardly get them to go to bed. Brandon got a Handy Manny building set and Aaron got a McQueen car garage. We set out our cookies for Santa (the ones Aaron didn't eat) and Chris told us the story of Jesus birth. I think Chris and I were both surprised at how much Brandon knew. I had been trying to do things to teach B the true spirit of Christmas but sometimes I wondered if anything was sinking in. I bought a little nativity that the boys loved playing with. The pieces were glass but they had little holes on the bottom and the boys would stick their fingers in a play finger puppets. At one point baby Jesus went missing, i found him in my boot, and Mary was gone for about a week, found her under B's bed. Luckily they all made it back for Christmas. Christmas morning was everything I hoped it would be. The boys ran to each others Santa's before they went to their own. It was kinda funny because they both did it. They tore open all of their presents and I am pretty sure from that point on they believed they were back in heaven. We made strawberry waffles for breakfast- another tradition, the boys didn't eat a bite- starting to be a tradition. After that we headed to Grandma Hess's for more presents and Christmas lunch. Great Grandma makes the boys an ornament every year. This year it was a snowman- super cute. Brandon made his grandma's snowman picture frames at lowes. Grandma Hess got the boys some cute books. Aarons came with a little CD player which he loves. He carries it around and bounces. He loves all music. She also got Aaron some squeaky shoes and Brandon a monkey and a monkey book which he has already memorized and reads to us every night.